PANTONE Introduces CAPSURE

Created for professionals in fashion, home, interior, industrial and graphic design, as well as contractors and do-it-yourselfers, CAPSURE allows users to accurately identify colour inspiration from any surface, material or fabric and match it to a PANTONE® Color for easy communication.

With unsurpassed accuracy, CAPSURE significantly reduces the time it takes to measure or choose a colour from a sample or any other form of colour inspiration.

Created for professionals in fashion, home, interior, industrial and graphic design, as well as contractors and do-it-yourselfers, CAPSURE allows users to accurately identify colour inspiration from any surface, material or fabric and match it to a PANTONE® Color for easy communication. With unsurpassed accuracy, CAPSURE significantly reduces the time it takes to measure or choose a colour from a sample or any other form of colour inspiration.

“CAPSURE’s advanced image capture technology sets a new standard for accuracy and versatility in a portable device,” said Giovanni Marra, director of corporate marketing at Pantone. “The real power of CAPSURE is its ability to measure the colour of any surface, including small, patterned and multi-coloured textures and textiles, which can confound other instruments because of their textural complexity, and quickly match them to more than 8,000 PANTONE Colors.”

The device uses powerful tri-directional image capture technology that eliminates the shadows and interference inherent to patterned and textured materials and surfaces. By illuminating the surface being measured from three different directions while simultaneously recording 27 colour-accurate images in 1.6 seconds, CAPSURE can extract up to four dominant colours from an intricate pattern so the viewer can clearly identify the desired colour.

Livia Ximénez-Carrillo and Christine Pluess of design house Mongrels in Common add: “Capsure is ideal for the development of new fabric colours. It is crucial that any new colours we use will complement existing ones and allow for blending and combining. With Capsure this process is so much easier than it has been in the past. With just one click, the device accurately identifies all of the colours in an existing fabric – even in a complex pattern. All we need to do is provide our fabric manufacturers in Italy with the Pantone colour or colours the device identified. This way we can be absolutely confident that the colours of any new fabrics suit our existing ones.”

CAPSURE’s image capture technology lets professionals preview what they are measuring on its 1.75 inch colour screen, in real-time, to affirm image accuracy. Those images are then stored on the device for later reference. CAPSURE

has the ability to record the last 100 colours measured for later reference. Users can also annotate colours with a voice recording as well as a time and date stamp. Additionally, the device provides harmonious shades and identifies related colours that are lighter, darker or similar in tone to the identified colour.

CAPSURE comes pre-loaded with all PANTONE Color Libraries allowing users to match more than 8,000 colours with a single device. Users can also toggle across multiple PANTONE Libraries and cross-match any material or surface. CAPSURE includes:

The PANTONE FASHION + HOME Color System Library (paper and cotton) for fashion and home; The PANTONE PAINT + INTERIORS Library (paper and cotton) for architecture and interiors; The PANTONE PLUS SERIES Formula Guide (coated and uncoated), PANTONE PLUS SERIES CMYK (coated and uncoated) and the PANTONE Goe™ System (coated and uncoated) for graphic design, printing and publishing; providing sRGB, Adobe RGB, HTML, Lab and XYZ values for multimedia design. For convenient remote use, the device is powered by a rechargeable lithium battery that lasts for thousands of measurements on a single charge. The CAPSURE Palette Application Software provides convenient access to saved colour measurements, details and tags, and allows users to view measured colour samples with selectable lighting conditions on their computer screen. Users can also create palettes with their favorite shades or custom palettes for a specific project. All palettes can be synchronized with popular design applications including Adobe® Creative Suite® and QuarkXPress®.

CAPSURE is available immediately for €550/£499 at www.pantone.com. CAPSURE Sync is available for both PC and Mac users and is included, free-of-charge, with each CAPSURE device. The Palette Application Software is available for download, free-of-charge, upon product registration. The Palette Application Software is PC-compatible; Macintosh support is expected in January 2011.

Pantone LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of X-Rite, Incorporated, has been the world’s colour authority for almost 50 years, providing design professionals with products and services for the colourful exploration and expression of creativity. Always a source for colour inspiration, Pantone also offers designer-inspired products and services for consumers. More information is available at www.pantone.com.